WTAFiction

 Images to kickstart your imagination: get writing, my darlings! Option A Antique Mall, Columbus, WI by Sarah Sines - used with permission Option B Renault Twingo at local scrapyard by Robin Black. (She remarked, "The backseat did look ... Contaminated.") - used with permission Option C Walking Mesquite in the Sonoran Desert, from Woodn_NDN_Man via reddit 

Hello, darlings, here's the second challenge/first round of the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction contest for 2021. This challenge is 1000 words, and, like my heatmates, I was assigned the genre Thriller, the setting of a birthday party, and the necessity of featuring a sugar cube. Enjoy! "Light this Candle"  Linda Scott Everyone who matters sparkles for Jane Farraday’s birthday soiree. Everyone who matters, plus Simone and her sister Nicole. The party’s exclusive: every one of the hundreds of guests is a multimillionaire, magnate, influencer, or the flashiest and most shameless of their hangers-on. It’s taken all the social capital Simone’s ever had to get in. She feels conspicuous now in heels, statement jewelry, and false lashes that seem to weigh more than her skimpy LBD. “It’s not the end of the world,” the bartender consoles someone whose drink has spilled. Maybe. Farraday is a popular, dissolute socialite whose vacation photos are enough to torpedo cultural,

  Hello, beautiful people!  I just got back feedback on this story for the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction contest for 2021 - this is the first leg of the first round, and there is a second leg before people move on to round two. This story took 2nd place in my heat, to my delight.  I hope you enjoy it!  Assignment: comedy, an indoor pool, leash "Waffles, Zoo, Pool!" Linda Scott I’ll never understand why grown-ups even go to hotels.   They don’t build pillow forts.   They won’t let you eat the candy and tea-party-sized drinks in the baby fridge.   You can have all the tiny soaps you want, and there’s always a cool bathtub, but they act like all the walls and floors of the bathroom are hot lava.   And they mostly don’t use the indoor pool even though you don’t even have to use sunscream. Bear and me saw it on the way in and locked eyes. Behind Mom and Dad’s back, she returned my barely-there nod.   We knew we had to wear down Dad’s resistance.   In her sleepiest baby voice, she